Victory is even sweeter when it's a little salty

Cupcakes taste WAY better when there's a little bit of honestly earned salt on your lips.

I ran Run With Jess's Cupcake Classic virtual 5K last night.

My warmup stretching was complicated by my inability to find safety pins, I left late, my left knee felt kind of crappy, the roads were covered in wet leaves, and I had plans for the evening I was a bit afraid of missing. Two blocks out, (watching the sky go dark rather rapidly) I felt kind of like a marionette with tangled strings and very nearly turned around to go home.

5K later I had finished what I think may be the best run I've ever done.

It had rained all day and I figured (incorrectly) that the overcast conditions might give me a little more daytime. I think I made up something about the sunset refracting through the cloud cover (something like that anyway) to justify it to myself but by fifteen minutes in it was DARK.

My knee was protesting a bit for the first mile and it took some time to get my coordination, but otherwise my legs felt good. No protests from my ankles or shins at any point, even after turning my right ankle a bit stepping on a hidden stick. I couldn't see my watch very well and didn't want to look away from the road more than I had to so I paced pretty much entirely by feel. I knew I was pushing my pace a bit but it felt good so I went with it. While I was definitely pushing myself the whole time I think I am developing a good feel for when I need to back off a bit and I never felt like I was killing myself. I think the four days I took off really helped out with the fatigue I've been feeling the last few weeks.

It was full on night time by the end which had be a bit freaked out between general safety concerns and footing. I really feel like I could have pushed the last half mile far more, but at that point I was on a busier street with fewer streetlights and with the wet leaves I didn't want to chance stepping wrong and ending my illustrious running career.

I walked a few blocks to cool down, headed inside to stretch, and that's when I saw this...

I beat my PR by just under three minutes!!!

Friday's run: a 5K run plus 5 minute warmup and cooldown walks. Negative splits throughout!
3.11 miles at an average of 10:47 per mile -  total time of 33:34

Splits:
mile 1 - 11:26
mile 2 - 10:42
mile 3 - 10:21
that last little bit - 1:04 (pace of 9:37)

Lessons of the day: 

Night running is rather pleasant aside from that "constant fear of imminent death" part.

The fact that I felt this much better after four days off leads me to believe that I'm probably over-training, I need to figure out how to address this.

Listening to your body works, who woulda thunk it!
Getting better is still happening, if I continue doing this the right way I may not be half bad at some point.
Victory is sweet indeed, but sometimes you can help it along with some vanilla cupcake and a healthy slathering of lemon curd.

Achievement unlocked: shiny pink medal!

image via http://www.runwithjess.com